The present invention relates to a method of producing a knitted article on a flat knitting machine, and to a flat knitting machine for producing a knitted article.
There are a plurality of knitted articled in which threads of different elasticity are processed together. For example in supporting or compression hosiery the wearing comfort is obtained by a textile base thread of low elasticity and the definite supporting and compression force is provided by the clamping force of an elastic thread. The elastic threads can be composed of different materials, such as elastomers or rubber mixtures. They can be spun also from other threads. Depending on the material and the construction of the threads their elasticity differs when the pulling forces act on them by the thread guide of the knitting machine. For a uniform knitting image it is necessary, during supply of threads with different elasticity for the loop formation to the needles of a knitting machine to monitor that the threads of higher elasticity are inserted with lower tension in the needle hooks and distributed uniformly over the total knitted article width. Moreover, it is necessary to monitor that the both threads of different elasticity form a stitch of the same shape and size.
For round knitting machines, an arrangement has been developed which supplies the threads of higher elasticity to the thread guide with stress which is specific for it and the knitted article to be produced. The device has two parallel shafts which are driven in the same direction and on which the coil with the elastic thread lies with its periphery. The shafts are coupled with the drive of the knitting machine through a toothed belt. The rotary speed and thereby the peripheral speed of the shafts have a fixed ratio to the rotary speed of the knitting machine. In the event of high knitting speed, many threads are wound from the coil, and in the event of the low knitting speed correspondingly lower number of threads is wound from the coil. In the flat knitting machines this device however can not be used since there in one knitting row, stitches of different sizes can be formed and also the width of the individual stitch row can be different. A supply of thread with higher elasticity alone in dependence from the knitting speed is here not possible.